HENDON OUTBREAK 287 



The second proposition set up by the Agricultural Department 

 was to the effect that in the outbreak of scarlet fever, traceable to 

 Mr P.'s farm at Hendon, there was a possible source of infection of the 

 milk by human agency. In an inquiry made by Professor Wortley 

 Axe some time after the Hendon outbreak, it transpired that 

 scarlet fever was present at Hendon, in the Mead, at the time of 

 the outbreak in London and previously. The Mead, a low-lying 

 and ill-conditioned street, ran immediately alongside and formed 

 one of the boundary lines of the implicated farm. The dwellings 

 in which scarlet fever existed stood within 600 yards of the sheds 

 in which the cows were housed and the dairy business carried on. 

 Of the fourteen men employed in and about the dairy, six resided 

 in the Mead and passed infected houses several times daily. 

 Moreover, the father of one of the patients suffering from scarlet 

 fever in November was on intimate terms with the bailiff at the 

 farm, and her brother constantly frequented the dairy. Professor 

 Axe considered that whilst there was no demonstration that the 

 milk became contaminated from this human source, the possi- 

 bility of such an event might not unreasonably be expected. It 

 should not, however, in this connection be forgotten that the scarlet 

 fever epidemic in London lasted some weeks, and could not appar- 

 ently have been due to a passing contamination of the milk. 



In the third place, the Agricultural Department considered that 

 the failure of Mr Power to visit and examine the two other farms 

 supplying the scarlatina-infected districts in London, introduced 

 a somewhat serious fallacy into the reasoning which referred the 

 outbreak to the Hendon farm alone. 



Lastly, Professor Brown maintained that the Hendon disease 

 was not rare in its appearance, but comparatively common in milch 

 cows. 



Indeed a cow disease apparently identical in general character 

 with the Hendon cow disease of 1885-6, according to the testimony 

 of experienced observers who saw the original Hendon outbreak, 

 appeared in 1887-8 at Hendon. Strangely enough the affection 

 was introduced by cows bought of the same dealer and from the 

 same market (Derby) as the cows which are said to have occasioned 

 the outbreak of Hendon disease in 1885. The disease affected 24 

 cows out of 45 in the herd. During the whole period of the outbreak 

 the milk of all the affected cows was used in the ordinary way by 

 the customers of the farm, yet " no complaint was ever made of it 

 causing illness or inconvenience, and the most diligent inquiry 

 failed to discover any outbreak of scarlatina among the many 



